In the United States the animal agriculture industry consumes around 55 per cent of the water.

Around the world, the meat and dairy industries consume 30 per cent of all fresh water every single day.

The animal agriculture industry is responsible for 18 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation.

Livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, which accounts for 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.

Cows produce around 150 billion gallons (567 billion liters) of methane every single day (Methane is considered much more damaging to the Earth’s atmosphere than CO2).

Around 45 per cent of the Earth’s land mass is currently being used for animal agriculture.

The amount of water used to produce 1 pound (0.45 Kg) of beef ranges from 442 to 8,000 gallons (1,673 to 30,283 liters).

Animal agriculture is directly responsible for 91 per cent of the destruction of the Amazon rain-forest.

Livestock is responsible for 65% of all human-related emissions of nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas with 296 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, and which stays in the atmosphere for 150 years.

Every minute, 7 million pounds of excrement are produced by animals raised for food in the United States.

A farm with 2,500 dairy cows produces the same amount of waste as a city of 411,000 people.

90-100 million tons of fish are pulled from the oceans every year, meaning we could see fishless oceans by 2048.

Around 650,000 whales, dolphins and seals are killed every year by fishing vessels, given that up to 40% of fish caught around the globe are discarded every year.

Whilst the planet currently holds a population of around 7 billion people, 70 billion farmed animals are reared annually, with more than 6 million animals killed for food every hour.

Unfortunately, the Cowspiracy documentary singles out the meat and dairy industries as the main culprits of the destruction of our planet and preaches going vegan as the ultimate solution.

Claiming veganism will save our planet, without putting into the equation and perspective the growing earth population and the overall contamination and unsustainable consumption of all natural resources seems to be a quick fix for all.

If going vegan is ‘the sustainability secret’ then the sustainability fact is that you can add to the list of abstinence everything from children’s plastic toys to soda drinks, frozen food, cars, flat pack furniture and smartphones among many others.

Shouldn’t the real discussion start with a whole new paradigm shift in everything?